Untether AI, a Canada-based AI-powered chip developer, raised $125m yesterday in a funding round co-led by Intel Capital, the corporate venturing arm of semiconductor manufacturer Intel.
Venture capital firm Tracker Capital Management co-led the round, which included Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and existing investors including Radical Ventures. Shaygan Kheradpir, a senior adviser at Tracker Capital, will join Untether’s board of directors in conjunction with the round.
Founded in 2018, Untether AI develops AI-powered chips for neural net inference. They combine at-memory computation with digital processing and are able to move the compute element to where the data is stored, reducing the power consumption involved in data transfer.
The funding will expand the company’s customer engagement across a variety of markets, boost its current product reach and accelerate the development of its next generation products. It had received an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2018 from investors now revealed to include Intel Capital.
Untether secured an initial $13m in series A funding from Intel Capital and undisclosed other investors in April 2019. The round closed at $20m the following month, after it collected an additional $7m from investors including Radical Ventures.
Saf Yeboah-Amankwah, chief strategy officer for Intel, said: “We have been an investor in Untether AI since the seed round. During that time Untether AI has assembled a world-class management team, developed and launched an exceptional product, and is now poised for growth in the burgeoning AI inference acceleration space.”